A chess prodigy , Gukesh is the youngest undisputed world champion, the youngest player to have surpassed a FIDE rating of , doing so at the age of 17, and the third-youngest to have surpassed Elo at the age of He earned the title of grandmaster at the age of 12 and is the third-youngest grandmaster in chess history. Gukesh started playing chess at the age of 7. He became an International Master in March On 15 January , at the age of 12 years, 7 months, and 17 days, he became the then second-youngest grandmaster in the history of the game, after Sergey Karjakin.
He was part of the Indian team that won the silver medal at the Asian Games in the men's team competition. Gukesh won the team bronze and the individual gold medal at the 44th Chess Olympiad in In the September rating list, Gukesh became the top-rated Indian player, surpassing Viswanathan Anand 's year record. In , he became the youngest winner of the Candidates Tournament and successfully challenged Ding Liren in the World Chess Championship , becoming the 18th and youngest undisputed world champion, at the age of 18 years and days.
Gukesh's family hails from the village of Chenchuraju Kandriga, near Satyavedu in the Tirupati district of Andhra Pradesh. His son Rajinikanth, later settled in Chennai to pursue a medical career and married Padmakumari there. Gukesh learned to play chess in , at the age of seven, and eventually began structured one-hour sessions three times a week. In , his father quit his job to travel with Gukesh to various tournaments; Gukesh was sponsored by his parents' friends at this time, [ 12 ] support about which he has often spoken since.
Gukesh won the under-9 section of the Asian School Chess Championships in On 15 January , Gukesh became the then second-youngest grandmaster in the history of the game at the age of 12 years, 7 months, and 17 days, behind Sergey Karjakin.
In August , Gukesh won the individual gold medal on the first board in the open event at the 44th Chess Olympiad in Chennai with a score of 9 out of He was part of the India-2 team which won the bronze medal in the same tournament. In August , Gukesh became the youngest player ever to reach a rating of He defeated Anish Giri in the semifinals before losing to Wei Yi in the finals of the tiebreaker.
